the re-emergence of the nhl

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kobayashi

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a collective bargaining agreement has been reached and awaits ratification from both players and owners.
check out tsn's summary.

some teams will be unrecognisable come 2 months from now given a massive crop of players available via free agency and more expected to be so with the 2/3rds buyout clause and a $39m cap on spending. the crosby sweepstakes will turn a new chapter during a 'slightly' weighted lottery favoring poorly performing teams of recent years (of course, there is rampant speculation that his negotiations with a swiss team will provide him with leverage to request a trade if, say, nashville wins his rights-keyword here being speculation).

the game itself will be different to some degree as shootouts, 3 on 3 overtime, points regimes with no ties, the return of tag up offsides, no touch icing, larger nets and no red line for 2 line passes are all being considered.

additionally, the league is considering an opening best of 3 playoff round of teams 7-10 before resuming best of 7 play with the remaining 8 teams in each conference, and the schedule will be further muddled by participation in the olympics.

big changes. how far has the sport fallen in the minds of north american's? can it return and, if so, is this the way?
 
Methinks the teams (certainly the NYs, Bostons, Detroits etc.) are going to have to consider lowering ticket prices or face some half or more empty buildings on many nights.

Its crazy that the NHL (at least in Boston) has the highest avg ticket price of the 4 major sports. To get fans bacvk, and kids/families out to games, they have to charge a reasonable price.
Now that they have a salary cap, they have no excuse for escalating cost to fans.
I think the 05-06 season (assuming it does happen) will be very poorly attended in a lot of markets.
Its not going to be an overnight process winning back fans.
 
Hewson said:
Methinks the teams (certainly the NYs, Bostons, Detroits etc.) are going to have to consider lowering ticket prices or face some half or more empty buildings on many nights.

Its crazy that the NHL (at least in Boston) has the highest avg ticket price of the 4 major sports. To get fans bacvk, and kids/families out to games, they have to charge a reasonable price.
Now that they have a salary cap, they have no excuse for escalating cost to fans.
I think the 05-06 season (assuming it does happen) will be very poorly attended in a lot of markets.
Its not going to be an overnight process winning back fans.

Agreed. On top of that I think it's going to take some serious help from the press to get the NHL back into the hearts of American sports lovers. ESPN and most major sports outlets haven't exactly been favorable in their coverage of hockey, ie "Does anyone miss the NHL?" or "look what this hockey idiot said."
 
both espn and foxsports have provided good coverage of the CBA agreement today. CNNSi slightly less so.

all in all, they selected the right day to tentatively introduce an agreement given baseball owned last weekend and golf owns the weekend starting tommorow. holding off specifics until next week leaves a relatively calm media and allows for ratification by both sides, decisions to be made on rule changes and the super exciting crosby lottery.

number of balls in lottery and probability of winning rights to 1st selection:

Anaheim 2 4.16%
Atlanta 2 4.16%
Boston 1 2.08%
Buffalo 3 6.25%
Calgary 2 4.16%
Carolina 2 4.16%
Chicago 2 4.16%
Colorado 1 2.08%
Columbus 3 6.25%
Dallas 1 2.08%
Detroit 1 2.08%
Edmonton 2 4.16%
Florida 1 2.08%
Los Angeles 2 4.16%
Minnesota 2 4.16%
Montreal 1 2.08%
Nashville 2 4.16%
New Jersey 1 2.08%
NY Islanders 1 2.08%
NY Rangers 3 6.25%
Ottawa 1 2.08%
Philadelphia 1 2.08%
Phoenix 2 4.16%
Pittsburgh 3 6.25%
St. Louis 1 2.08%
San Jose 1 2.08%
Tampa Bay 1 2.08%
Toronto 1 2.08%
Vancouver 1 2.08%
Washington 1 2.08%
 
It's unfortunate that the labour dispute carried on for so long, but I think that in the next 2-3 years (yes that was an intentional dash) the NHL will reclaim its former fans... if only for the notion that the security this deal "ensures" will allow for a relatively stable future. Although, considering the constant negative publicity and complacent disregard for promoting the sport to a broader audience (on behalf of both players and owners), there will be little ground made with the casual fans and those who have even feigned interest over the years towards investing their time in watching. Thankfully, the radical changes in the format might attract new fans of the attention deficit persuasion (NASCAR!!!!!!).

:sexywink:

I agree that ticket prices need a signifcant reduction, but I will attend a game the first chance I get regardless.

As a spectator, I must say that the lockout was infinitely more entertaining than many of the past few Stanley Cup Finals. I'm looking at you New Jersey.

:shh:
 
This is great news that it will (hopefully) finally be over.

I agree in Cujo that it probably wont take very long to at least get back to where it was (though that may not be saying much in your average US home). Some of those new rules/steps may slightly make a difference in making it "more exciting", but it isnt all that likely that it will help bring in more viewers.

Hows this for an idea: Pull teams out of cities that have no general interest in hockey and put then in cities that are traditionally hockey or at least "winter sport" cities, you'd at least have a local fan base that you didnt have to try to create. (Yes I'm biased, I want a freaking team in SLC. We're supposed to be this "Winter Sports Mecca", and we dont even have a major league hockey team. Weak.)
 
u2popmofo said:
Hows this for an idea: Pull teams out of cities that have no general interest in hockey and put then in cities that are traditionally hockey or at least "winter sport" cities, you'd at least have a local fan base that you didnt have to try to create.

That would make too much sense.

That's not how we do viable business. Expansion requires no economic or rational logic.

*faeces-filled grin.

yours,

Gary Bettman and Family
 
It's about time. :angry:

Time to start saving up so I can go to some games. As soon as the Red Wings come to town, I'm there. :up:
 
Is anyone else disappointed by the fact that the game itself might be changing? It seems like the changes they're considering have been made to simply encourage fancy offensive displays...which results in more people watching, which results in more money being made. Like always, money rules the day. I liked the game the way it was before, thanks.

Oh well, I'm just thankful that it's back! Now I can go back to watching current NHL games, not ones that happened 30 years ago.
 
Yes, when I read about the proposed changes, I was disappointed. No-touch icing, I can understand because of the injury factor. The rest? Hmm... I love 1-0 games. No changes for me, thanks.


mofo, we'll check the schedule! :cool:
 
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

HOCKEY IS BACK!!!!

:drool: :drool: :wink:

I have waited and waited and waited for this day. This past year sucked royally for me with no hockey. Yes! Devils for the cup!:) Haha, I know I know, I'm way ahead of myself.

By the way, the NHLPA got SCREWED in this deal. Way to go owners:)
 
i like the changes, all the clutching and grabbing was making the game almost unbearable to watch

you wach old games from Gretzky's heyday and players actually had room to make offensive moves, it will be nice to see that again
 
:madspit: the NHL. Sorry Chizip, the clutching and grabbing will still be there. They have been trying to eliminate that for the past 5 years and have nothing to show for it. 3 on 3 OT, give me a break, why not turn the nets around too?

The NHLPA allowed a season to die for no reason, idiots. They hurt the game, the league and the fans. This will have long term effects of this will linger for years to come mostly negative.

Hockey won't get me back as a viewer for the time being.
 
:: imagines $10 Flyers tickets ::

:drool:

Seriously, major-league hockey is simply cost-prohibitive for far too many people (to be fair, so are most professional major-league sports, with the possible exception of baseball). There's a reason that many hockey fans gave a collective :shrug: to the lockout: particularly in Canada, it's much easier and cheaper to see good hockey on a junior, collegiate, minor league, or semipro level than it is to save one's pennies for 6 months to see an NHL game. As a lot of you know, come October-April (and hopefully May-June, too!), I live and die with my backyard AHL team, where cheap seats are $12 (still not what you'd call cheap, really, but within the realm of possibility for an average family to go more than once or twice in a season). And the only reason I much cared about the lockout was because I knew if it went on indefinitely, eventually the minor leagues would suffer too.

Moral of the story: swallow your pride and greed, owners, and offer maybe something like Sunday games for cheap prices. The NHL collectively (because all parties bear part of the blame) has been screwing hockey fans over for years. Time to own up to it and make the game more democratically accessible.
 
THe Caps held their rookie camp this week in town.

THey all flew back home to the outermost reaches of Canada this afternoon...I got to meet former North Star (and Flame, I thing...or was it the Oilers?) Brian Maclellan...good to see that he still lives in Minneapolis despite his job title with the Caps. I look forward to seeing him a lot in ym area (the Hershey Bears moved affiliation from the Avs to the Caps).
 
Finally-It seems like years since The Mighty Leafs have gotten my hopes up, only to rip my heart out.....I guess it has been years
 
The NHLPA RAD-ified the deal.

:up:

Remaining approval from the owners is just a formality (seeing as it is essentially the NHL brass' deal). For those forum members who disliked the dominance of hockey threads before... my sympathies for the months to come.

:sexywink:
 
i don't care , even if the bruins roster will be full of rookies and no superstars , just play the game and show it on freakin tv
even better then real thing
even better then real thing
 
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